Consultant to weigh feasibility of Ball Ground bypass

The feasibility of a highway bypass around downtown Ball Ground is the subject of a $246,600 professional services agreement recently approved by the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners.

Vanesse Hangen Brustlin Inc. was awarded the contract to look at Ga. 372, also known as Main Street in Ball Ground.

“This section of (State Route) 372 is used by many trucks; poultry trucks, gravel trucks and trash trucks,” according to a staff report to commissioners. “The city and its downtown merchants have talked about a truck bypass around the downtown for many years.”

The potential, 1.7-mile bypass would begin southeast of downtown, near Ga. 372 and Flatbottom Trail, staff said. It would pass south of downtown, crossing Northridge Road and the Georgia Northeastern Railroad, and end at Ball Ground Highway (old Ga. 5) and Howell Bridge Road.

The consultant would help identity the feasibility and estimated costs for the bypass, staff said.